Viva Pinata

Wednesday

Aug 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMNov 27, 2007 at 11:30 AM

Those with an allergy to the excessively cute beware; Viva Piñata is barf-inducingly cuddly. It’s also got dozens of hours of playability and engaging gameplay. What’s a macho gamer to do? Viva Piñata is equal parts SimGardening and Pokemon. Given a shovel, a watering can and a packet of seeds, it is your job to create a garden that appeals to the tastes of the 50-plus creatures that live on Piñata Island.

Review By Tony Pacitti, southcoast247.com correspondent

Platform:X-Box 360Rating: E

Those with an allergy to the excessively cute beware; Viva Piñata is barf-inducingly cuddly. It’s also got dozens of hours of playability and engaging gameplay. What’s a macho gamer to do? Viva Piñata is equal parts SimGardening and Pokemon. Given a shovel, a watering can and a packet of seeds, it is your job to create a garden that appeals to the tastes of the 50-plus creatures that live on Piñata Island. As your garden quickly grows, you will unlock the ability to visit several townsfolk, each with a different commodity to sell, including fruit and veggie seeds, homes for your creatures and even farmhands to help lighten your workload.

The animals are, as the game’s title suggests, living, breathing piñatas. The types of plants, fruits and other creatures you have in your garden will determine which benevolent little critters, as well as some nasty ones, decide to call your little plot of land home. Ultimately, your success depends on attracting as many animals as possible, and how happy they are. Keep them happy and they reproduce—or “romance” in kid friendly terms—and will become more valuable. Experimenting is the key to progressing in Viva Piñata. Plant any seed you come across. Make your piñatas eat a little bit of everything. Sometimes they’ll eat something and nothing will happen. Other times, they’ll eat something weird, and turn into a whole new species. You’ll never know unless you just tinker around with things.

The controls are tight and easy. You navigate a cursor over your garden and follow on-screen button commands to perform tasks like plant seeds, dig holes, and place new structures. After a few hours you will have encountered most, if not all, of the game’s control requirements, so it will all become reflexive pretty quick. Visually, the game is absolutely stunning. The cartoony look fits the feel of the game perfectly, and you can tell that the developers left no detail out of the mix.

Viva Piñata is undoubtedly a kid’s game, but, even so, it’s a testament to how “kid’s” game doesn’t always have to mean “bad” game. Like Pokemon, the gameplay is easy to get the hang of while still delivering a fulfilling experience. Things do drag a bit when your garden gets crowded and you are waiting for your land size to increase, but usually there are plenty of things to keep you busy. The game is also very laid back, so don’t expect the type of excitement you’d find in a first person shooter or a platformer. If you think of those types of games as a Friday or Saturday night, then consider Viva Piñata more like a Sunday afternoon—relaxing and enjoyable, and a great choice for gamers looking to mellow out after a lot of running and gunning.